Juniper Hill Conservation Area Appraisal March 2009 Planning, Housing and Economy Contents Page 1. Introduction 3 2. Planning Policy Context 4 3. Location and Topography 7 4. History of Kidlington 8 5. CharacterArchitectural area History 11 6. Character of Juniper Hill 13 7. Boundary Justification 17 8. DetailsMaterials & Details 18 9. Historic Photographs 19 10. Management Plan 20 11. ProposedBibliography Extensions and Justification 24 12. BibliographyAppendix 25 13. Appendix List of Figures 1. ConservationLocation Area Boundary 3 2. Area Designations 5 3. Topographical Map 6 4. Aerial View 7 5. DomesdayHistorical maps Book featuring village 9 6. Unlisted1900-06 buildingsMap 12 7. SketchFigure groundMap of planParish 18th century 14 8. VisualMap of Analysis Oxfordshire 1808 16 9. Buildings mentioned in text 10. Listed Buildings 11. Character Areas 12. Areas Proposed for Inclusion in Conservation Area 13. Existing Conservation Area Boundary 14. Proposed Conservation Area Boundary 2 1. Introduction Juniper Hill is a rural hamlet of scattered Juniper Hill was made famous as ‘Lark Rise’ in dwellings situated 7 miles (11.2Km) north of the novels by Flora Thompson which recall her Bicester close to the busy A43. childhood in 1880s rural Oxfordshire. The settlement was first established in the late It is this well documented social history, as 18th century originating with just two cottages well as the evocative nature of the hamlet, in 1754 as an offshoot of nearby Cottisford. which makes Juniper Hill of particular note and The majority of the inhabitants being employed led to its designation as a Conservation Area in local agriculture the population peaked in in 1980. the19th century and fell with the This document is the first appraisal of Juniper mechanisation of the early 20th century. Hill since its designation and aims to highlight the special character of the hamlet which it is desirable to preserve and enhance. © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved 100018504 2009 0 100 500m Figure 1: Location 3 2. 2.Planning Planning Policy Policy Context Context 2.1 Conservation Area Local planning authorities have a duty under the Act to consider boundary revisions to their Designation Conservation Areas ‘from time to time’. The boundary of Juniper Hill Conservation Area has not been reviewed since its designation in The planning (Listed Buildings and 1980. This document extends the Conservation Areas) Act 1990 provides Conservation Area to include the playing field legislation for the protection of the nation’s at the south east edge of the hamlet. heritage of buildings and places of architectural and historic interest, the This document is based on a standard character or appearance of which it is recording format derived from advice desirable to preserve or enhance. contained in documents published by English Heritage (2005a). By writing a full Conservation Area appraisal for Juniper Hill, Conservation Areas were introduced by the the special character and appearance can be Civic Amenities Act of 1967. Some 8,000 identified and protected by ensuring that any Conservation Areas have been designated in future alteration preserves or enhances that England, including 56 in Cherwell District. identified special character. This document has been the subject of public Juniper Hill Conservation Area was designated consultation and has been amended as a in 1980. This designation reflects the result of comments received. Once approved importance placed on the value of Juniper this document will be used as a material Hill’s historical, aesthetic and architectural consideration in the determination of character. applications in the Conservation Area and its setting. 4 Figure 2: Area Designations There are no TPOs (Tree Preservation Orders), scheduled ancient monuments, SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) or other designations within or immediately adjacent to the Conservation Area. 5 Figure 3: Topographical map 6 3. Location and Topography Juniper Hill sits within the parish of Cottisford. Juniper Hill lies within the Oxfordshire Estate Much of the parish was once heath land and Farmlands landscape area defined by the Juniper Hill falls within the area known before Cherwell District landscape assessment the Inclosures as northern Cottisford Heath. (Cobham Resource Consultants, 1995). The hamlet is situated on the White limestone The landscape around the village is arable and Cornbrash of the Great Oolite belt. The with extensive fields punctuated by small predominant building material of the area is a copses and coverts. The field boundaries are rough bluish-grey limestone which contains mainly mature mixed species hedgerows. shell debris and has a high clay content. Road verges are generous widths and often The topographical map shows that Juniper Hill have a hedge on either side. In places the does lie on slightly higher land than its structure of the landscape is disappearing as surroundings but this is difficult to discern on intensive arable use has resulted in the site, despite giving the settlement its name. removal of field boundaries so that only lines of hedgerow trees remain. Fig 4: 2004 Aerial view of the village including the Conservation Area boundary Conservation Area boundary 7 4. History of Juniper1875 Hill 1883 4.1 Origins By the end of the 19th century there were 4.1.1 The hamlet originated in 1754 when two about 30 cottages, mostly built on lands ceded cottages were built for the poor at a cost of as 'squatters' rights'. It was during this century £28 7s. 6d.(the money was raised by a rate that the population within the parish peaked, charged on the surrounding landowners). 269 people being recorded in 1861. The However it was not until the Inclosures of the agricultural depression saw numbers drop to common fields in 1854 that the hamlet grew to 240 by 1881 and 154 in 1951. its present size. The name simply derives from Flora Thompson was born Flora Jane Timms the abundance of juniper growing in the in the hamlet on 5th December 1876 and was surrounding heathland. educated at Cottisford school. She was the daughter of a local stonemason and her 4.2 Archaeology popular trilogy (Lark Rise to Candleford) is an important social document recording life in There is little recorded archaeology in or Juniper Hill and the surrounding settlements. around Juniper Hill but the proximity of the settlement to the Oxford-Brackley road and the Medieval buildings of Cottisford suggest that this may well be the result of lack of exploration rather than lack of material. 4.3 History The parish of Cottisford contained a settlement thought to have been of a similar size to Juniper Hill in the 12th century or earlier. It is believed that this hamlet disappeared in the 1340s having been recorded as declining in 1343 and it is probable that this was due to the Black Death. It is suggested that the site of this hamlet, known as Cote, was on the eastern side of the Crowell Brook and its name stemmed from the Flora Thompson local landowning family of De Cotes. The area had no one resident lord of the Juniper Hill had no church, most of the manor, lands between Cottisford and Juniper inhabitants walked the mile to the Medieval St. Hill being owned by Bec Abbey in the 1100s Mary’s in Cottisford, although the rector did and later Eton College. There are references occasionally visit the hamlet. There is little in 1700 of 8 acres of land being ploughed for evidence of non-conformist activity within Eton College on Juniper Hill which was at that Juniper Hill but Flora Thompson describes a time part of the Cottisford Heath. small group of Methodists who met in a cottage in the hamlet in the 1880s. Apart from Eton College, the only proprietors in the parish in the 18th century were the Juniper Hill’s inn, the 'Fox', came into rector and the non-resident Fermor family of existence between 1852 and 1864 and figures Cottisford. The Fermor trustee owned most of in Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford the cottages within Juniper Hill in the 1850s. as 'The Wagon and Horses'. The inn closed in the 1990s and is now a private house. 8 Figure 5: Historic maps 1887 © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved 100018504 2009 0 50 100m 2008 © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved 0 50 100m 100018504 2009 9 Flora Thompson’s own description of the hamlet from Lark Rise, chapter I : Poor People’s Houses THE hamlet stood on a gentle rise in the flat, A road flattened the circle at one point. It had wheat-growing north-east corner of Oxfordshire. been cut when the heath was enclosed, for We will call it Lark Rise because of the great convenience in fieldwork and to connect the number of skylarks which made the surrounding main Oxford road with the mother village and a fields their springboard and nested on the bare series of other villages beyond. From the hamlet earth between the rows of green corn. All it led on the one hand to church and school, and around, from every quarter, the stiff, clayey soil on the other to the main road, or the turnpike, as of the arable fields crept up; bare, brown and it was still called, and so to the market town windswept for eight months out of the twelve. where the Saturday shopping was done. It Spring brought a flush of green wheat and there brought little traffic past the hamlet. An were violets under the hedges and pussy- occasional farm wagon, piled with sacks or willows out beside the brook at the bottom of the square-cut bundles of hay; a farmer on horse- 'Hundred Acres'; but only for a few weeks in back or in his gig; the baker’s little old later summer had the landscape real beauty.